Conservation Officer (Chough Project Coordinator – Cornwall)

Your help is needed to support the recovery of chough in Cornwall. We are looking for two highly motivated and passionate volunteers to be our Chough Project Coordinator, a job-share role that plays a vital part in running our hugely successful project. Could you help continue its legacy?

This role provides the chance to develop hands-on experience and skills around surveying, dealing with spatial planning issues and working with communities. You will be contributing to our Priority Species work programme, so we are able to better protect this iconic species long into the future. We will offer training and induction to ensure that you are fully prepared for the specific needs of this role. We like to think we're a friendly and welcoming team, so you'll have the opportunity to make new friends too!

This voluntary role will support chough by:

• Coordinating surveys to monitor chough population during set times of the year
• Collating and inputting survey data into our database
• Supporting, organising, and recruiting a team of volunteers to carry out survey work
• Responding to enquiries from the public regarding chough and help with communications work
• Supporting the partnership between NT, CBWPS & NE by helping to organise meetings and networking with people
• Contributing to planning responses and producing a short annual report on the work of the Project, with support from the staff team
• Administration

It will require some key general skills, but please note that we will offer training and induction into this particular area of the RSPB. Some of the following skills and experience would be desirable:

• Experience working with volunteers and some knowledge of chough
• IT skills, creating documents, managing spreadsheets, submitting records
• Excellent communication skills for engaging with different audiences, internal and external to the RSPB
• Organisational skills
• Some experience of organising surveys would be helpful, but training will be provided on this
• Ability to work in a small team

If you’ve got 1-2 days a week to spare this could be the role for you, although of course this may vary throughout the year depending on workload, likely to peak in the spring leading up to the breeding season. This role covers the whole of Cornwall and lends well to home working, but we would require semi-regular visits to our Penzance office for team liaison.

This rewarding role offers the opportunity to work with people passionate about saving nature and to ensure the evidence collected, managed and used by RSPB is the best it can be, which is crucial to our work. You will be able to develop hands on experience and skills in coordinating an established project, and use of conservation data within the UK’s largest nature conservation charity.

Your work will make a genuine contribution to nature conservation and the work of the RSPB across many departments. Your time, skills and energy will have a real impact on our work and enable us to do more with our limited resources. The experience you gain will provide you with transferable skills and the real sense of satisfaction you get from working with an environmental charity – come and join us!